What am I doing wrong?

[diordan99]

Hey guys, I'm super new to rokslide, and just wanted to get some opinions from everyone. I have been hunting big game in Idaho since 2015. The last few years however, have been pretty rough. To sum it up, I've been up for elk and deer in multiple different parts of the state since the 2021 season to no avail. Each season I seem to even see less animals. I've got decent optics gear, I've tried to look for spots where animals might be feeding or watering. I'm putting miles on foot to get into tough to access areas. Yet the past couple years I can't even find any animals, nonetheless a shoot-worthy animal. Am I doing something wrong? Has the hunting in Idaho gotten this bad? Maybe both?

Thanks

 

[Geewhiz]

Welcome to rokslide

 

[Syncerus1]

I live in SE Idaho. The simple answer to your question is yes, things have gotten so bad...
In reality there are many factors in play: Surging numbers of "hunters", ditto all applications, piss poor F&G management practices, Ditto F&G "Biologists", your skill levels may come onto play, predation definitely has had an extremely devastating impact of our elk and deer, and almost all of our moose population. You don't mention your age, define a "shoot worthy" animal, or go into much detail regarding your knowledge of our state, it's various units, densities, etc... Local knowledge is still worth its weight in gold, especially when you may not draw a controlled tag but every 10-20 years.
I can offer it is NO BETTER in any of our western states. They are all mismanaged. They are all surging in population. They are all achieving revenue projections at the expense of their wildlife. and there is Mother Nature... good luck, be of good cheer, do more due diligence, reach out to more truly experienced hunters, but most of all enjoy your time in the outdoors, it will not last long...

 

[Jimmy]

Most hunters since the beginning of time have had the same question. Where are the animals?

 

[Dos Perros]

I tell my kids, sometimes daily, that when something doesn't work out they have two choices: 1) try harder, or 2) try another approach. What else are you going to do, give up?

 

[diordan99]

I live in SE Idaho. The simple answer to your question is yes, things have gotten so bad...
In reality there are many factors in play: Surging numbers of "hunters", ditto all applications, piss poor F&G management practices, Ditto F&G "Biologists", your skill levels may come onto play, predation definitely has had an extremely devastating impact of our elk and deer, and almost all of our moose population. You don't mention your age, define a "shoot worthy" animal, or go into much detail regarding your knowledge of our state, it's various units, densities, etc... Local knowledge is still worth its weight in gold, especially when you may not draw a controlled tag but every 10-20 years.
I can offer it is NO BETTER in any of our western states. They are all mismanaged. They are all surging in population. They are all achieving revenue projections at the expense of their wildlife. and there is Mother Nature... good luck, be of good cheer, do more due diligence, reach out to more truly experienced hunters, but most of all enjoy your time in the outdoors, it will not last long...

Thank you for taking the time to reply. I'd say "shoot worthy" animal for me is simply a deer or elk that isn't a yearling, or isn't very young buck/bull. I've never been a trophy hunter. I simply want like most hunters, to fill my tag. As for my age, l I'm in my mid 20's, in decent physical shape.

 

[Tmac]

Talk to a biologist. Have a few units in mind and ask about the population. Then pick one and ask about 3-4 drainages/areas or see if they will suggest a few. Some areas got hammered with a terrible winter a couple years back, and their population dropped dramatically. Then try some scouting and possibly glassing more and moving less.

For example, where I like to hunt in MT had back to back years of severe drought. Then that last year blue tongue hit. The the afore mentioned winter hit. On a 12k acre ranch where we would see 40-50 WT and 100+ MD a day, there were just 6-15 MD spotted the year after and in 23. Zero WT. Where I to hunt that I’d not see any hair and think I was doing something wrong. Which if I hunted it I would be doing something wrong, hunting where they aren’t. Not saying that’s your issue, but it could be.

 

[Ucsdryder]

Welcome to the 85% of hunters that don’t kill anything. Come to Colorado, you’ll fit right in otc.

 

[elkguide]

As a nonresident that has been hunting in Idaho almost every year since the 90's. I usually hunt in the SE corner and central part of the state. The SE took a pretty hard hit with a tough winter in '16 and again last year. Deer numbers, from my perspective, are down. Elk seem to be down in numbers some but I put that to more hunting pressure since Covid.
Then again, I had one of the most exciting elk hunts ever this past fall. I had a cow tag and of course I stumbled into several bulls and their harems. Neat experience watching 5 six-point bulls all protecting their girls from the eight to ten satellites trying to steal a cow or two. Got so involved watching that incredible scene that I passed up shots at less than 100 yards and ended up shooting a cow at 280.
The animals are there but you're going to have to hunt harder to find them. Talk to the biologist for the area that you plan on hunting and preseason scouting is very helpful.
Good luck.

 

[CorbLand]

2016/2017 winter, drought, then 2022/2023 winter havent helped you any.

 

[insanelupus]

InstaFaceTweet crowds make it look easy with a lot of material you don't see.

If you grew up whitetail hunting and you are hunting elk, that's a new learning curve.

Occasionally, you can strike up a friendship with a good elk hunter and they might show you the ropes. Rarely do the good elk hunters share this info outside of family.

Took me 20 years to kill a bull. Lots of hard miles and hard lessons. Still lots of lessons to learn.

What are you doing wrong? Maybe your definition of "success" needs to be evaluated?

Crawl, walk, run, always incurs a lot of falls. Failure is the road to success until you find what works for you. Stay committed, keep at it, it'll pay off.

 

[RDMT]

InstaFaceTweet crowds make it look easy with a lot of material you don't see.

If you grew up whitetail hunting and you are hunting elk, that's a new learning curve.

Occasionally, you can strike up a friendship with a good elk hunter and they might show you the ropes. Rarely do the good elk hunters share this info outside of family.

Took me 20 years to kill a bull. Lots of hard miles and hard lessons. Still lots of lessons to learn.

What are you doing wrong? Maybe your definition of "success" needs to be evaluated?

Crawl, walk, run, always incurs a lot of falls. Failure is the road to success until you find what works for you. Stay committed, keep at it, it'll pay off.

Excellent advice.

 

[idelkslayer]

If you started in 2015 then your first 2 years of hunting were during some of the best years in decades in terms of mule deer numbers and hunter success. There have been 3 hard winters since then that have kept the population from growing and the 22-23' winter was a really bad one. There is 1/3 as many deer now and only time and mild winters is going to change that.

 

[Pony Soldier]

You are right where the rest of us are at. The answer is cover more land. Drainage by drainage - ridgetop to ridgetop. Sometimes really hard winters drive the game to differant winter ranges and they don't come back.

You are at the search stage and the choices are some or none. Time to learn a lot of new ground.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

Boots on the ground man. I scout/camp/backpack/predator hunt/varmint hunt year round in the units I hunt. Take a weekend every month and go scout/camp. You'll learn terrain, animal habits, migration (if they even migrate), weather/thermal patterns, and you'll be a way more efficient camper/backpacker/hunter.

Try new areas and have an open mind. Also, have FUN!!!!

 

[11boo]

Always take a rod. The fish will bite when the elk won’t play.

 

[Beendare]

@diordan99,
It's all about understanding the animal you are hunting and how they are using the topography then overlaying hunting pressure into the equation.

For example, If you scout before archery season you might find animals doing the same things on the first day or two of the season- after that, all bets are off. Then it's a matter of figuring out how they changed their pattern.

Rifle seasons; by then, critters are already super aware they are being hunted. Then it's a matter of figuring out how they are using the area under all of that hunt pressure. Guaranteed they go more nocturnal- thus that first and last few minutes of light is crucial to catch them....and you are in camp.

I've watched 350" bull elk in the late rifle season in a couple units in AZ that didn't move 50y all day. He would show up at first light, bedded in a small dip of PJ on an open plateau where the wind was swirling about every 15 min. We would have had to get the client 30' from him to get a clean shot- impossible.

Rifle hunting with a bow doesn't work. Just hiking in on a trail a couple miles is no guarantee of seeing animals. Learn how to read sign....then hunt accordingly.

 

[Minute_of_Antelope]

Rifle hunting with a bow doesn't work. Just hiking in on a trail a couple miles is no guarantee of seeing animals.

Not OP, but I’m genuinely interested in what you mean by this. It jibes with my experience but I want to hear more about what you mean…

 

[TaperPin]

Keep at it and you’ll figure it out - every type of hunting and fishing requires a “feel” for it that doesn’t always come naturally. If what you are doing isn’t working, do things differently until it starts to make sense.

I’ve lived and hunted in many areas with good elk populations where I’ve never seen an elk in an open area feeding during shooting hours - ever, not even as a kid camping all the time. The hunting videos and forum photos give people the impression all elk are taken in the open. Not all elk areas can simply be glassed and shots taken at long range. It’s also no accident long range shooters tend to hunt areas that benefit from long shots, but it could be argued more elk are taken more up close and personal. I can give you ten ridges in great elk country where you’d be lucky to see any elk in a week by glassing unless there’s been a heavy snow, but you’ll see elk every time down in the dark north facing timber during the day, and working their way up out of it early and late, but never actually in the open until well after the sun sets. As temps drop and snow falls they move sooner each evening and might not bed as far into the cold bottoms.

Learn about escape lanes and travel routes between areas - during the season elk are pushed around and they are somewhat predictable in the paths they take. I have a cold camp up very close to good elk hunting, but the timbered ridge I camp on never has old or new elk tracks on it - elk go way up and around, or drop way down and around. They live here, know every ridge and draw well, and have definite preferences when it comes to moving around.

Where ever you hunt, cover ground quickly until you start to see fresh sign - don’t hunt slowly in areas without elk. Likewise, slow down and take your time when in the middle of fresh sign. Know the difference.

You can learn more about elk by going into a bedding area and following tracks to recreate their day than anything else. Elk are fairly habitual - keep learning from the sign you see and their habits will start to sink in and you’ll improve the elk “feel”.

Some areas get hammered by locals each weekend - just because you’re the only guy on the mountain Monday morning, doesn’t mean the elk haven’t been run back and forth and pushed into the next drainage over from the road.

More than anything, you’ll benefit from local knowledge. Generations of locals have figured out how to hunt each area and know which areas are good and which are crap. One year I ran into two hunting guides from Montana who seemed very serious about big muledeer, but choose to ignore local knowledge and didn’t know they were focused on a ridge that never has anything other than 2 point bucks and does. If they hadn’t been cocky pricks I would have shared some information that a dozen years of hunting the same area had taught me.

 

[JeffRaines]

I have no input regarding Idaho, so I can’t help you there.

What I can tell you is that I picked up hunting in 2014. I grew up in south Alabama. Wanted to hunt as a kid but never got a chance to, forgot about it until I was 27 and out west where I always wanted to move after seeing google images(back when it first came out!) of places out this way. To mention - none of my family hunted save for my grandpa who passed when I was 7, and he was a disabled veteran in his late 80s so it isn’t like I was raised up around it or with generational knowledge.

It is immensely frustrating sometimes because for hunting the only feedback you get if you’re alone(and that’s me most of the time) is if you see an animal. If you don’t see anything, aside from checking the basics like wind you have nothing to go on at first.

Maybe you’ve already done this, but what I did was put myself in target rich environments. Yes, there’s always the story of the guys who hunt low population units and come out with an animal every year and those guys are on a totally different level from a beginner. You need to be in a high population place where you have opportunities. That’s the only way to learn it alone. There’s no amount of books, articles, anecdotes and videos you can watch that will fully teach you what you need to know out there… and newsflash, even the guys who are consistent are still learning.

Another tip - pick a species and focus solely on it. Trying to spread yourself out over deer, elk, bear, turkey whatever you’re gonna end up having a subpar experience with each one. Pick one and any hunting you do that year needs to revolve around it.

Someone somewhere once wrote that it takes 2-3 years to learn a place. After you pick your high population area, your species, do some boots on the ground scouting during the summer and find the animals. They won’t be pressured like they will during season so they’ll be more visible. Dedicate 2-3 years to this place. Get familiar with it. Take the family on camping trips there. Make every excuse to go to that place. This is also why hunting a place close to home helps too…

Now here’s another secret - animals don’t go as far as you think when they’re pressured. They will end up at the closest area where they can escape the pressure and still have access to the essentials. Maybe put yourself into the mindset of an animal - where would I go that’s not 10 miles away to get away from intrusive humans that has food, water and cover? While you’re scouting drop in those places and look - you’ll find old sign. Drop pins. Those are your late opening day, day 2, etc hunts.

You can learn and do it, it’s not impossible, just stay after it. Even a broken clock is right twice a day(and trust me, I’m a broken clock on my best days).

Good luck.